I have a scooter and I'm not afraid to use it!

And the award for best product placement goes to…

Vespas have been showing up in movies since 'Roman Holiday.' A video montage follows the jump.

Oh, gosh, the Academy Awards are on tonight. Not having actual TV (red envelopes really don’t count), I am not able to watch. And that doesn’t bother me, particularly.

However, in the spirit of timeliness, a video compilation of Vespas in the movies follows the jump.

This video compresses approximately 65 years’ worth of Vespas in motion pictures into a bit over three minutes. Remember, Jimmy rode a Lambretta.

Pretty much any movie made in Italy in the 1950s and 60s had Vespas in them because the Italian government offered the film industry all kinds of incentives to make movies there. Those incentives included a Vespa for each of the stars to toodle around on.

Today, a whole industry is built around product placements in movies and TV. Maybe you got the e-mail from Vespa USA about the GTV’s STARRING ROLE in New Year’s Eve?

You surely have noticed how often new Vespas have been turning up in other recent movies, have you not? Product placement. Like Reese’s Pieces in E.T. and pretty much any car James Bond has ever driven, products conspicuously placed in movies and TV are the new advertising.

As for the Oscars®, well, there will surely be considerable gnashing of teeth and rending of garments, no matter who wins what. Never mind that the list of Oscar® snubs comprises some of the most iconic and stellar work in the history of motion pictures, people watching in their homes will get all upset at tonight’s results, even though they shouldn’t.